Do You Really Want To Know What’s Wrong With The Yanks Bats This Season?
Via the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia, here are all the stats that you’ll need…to see what the Yankees problem, offensively, is all about this year.
First, look at the Yankees offense, in 2007, in terms of Runs Created Per Game (RC/G):
Team RC/G Yankees 6.19 Red Sox 5.84 Tigers 5.71 Indians 5.19 Devil Rays 5.18 Angels 5.08 Mariners 5.00 Rangers 4.85 A's 4.82 Orioles 4.81 Blue Jays 4.75 Twins 4.50 White Sox 4.31 Royals 4.18
Last year, the Yankees were the top of the heap, in the A.L., in terms of RC/G. So, where are they this season, through last night’s game? See the following:
Team RC/G Red Sox 5.89 Rangers 5.75 Orioles 5.29 Tigers 5.26 Yankees 5.21 White Sox 5.20 Rays 5.14 Indians 5.00 Twins 4.81 Blue Jays 4.58 Angels 4.56 Mariners 4.32 Royals 4.14 A's 3.91
So, compared to the rest of the A.L., the Yankees are not terrible, in terms of RC/G, this season. But, they are down just about one full RC/G compared to last year. Why is that? See the following chart:
Player 2007 2008 Diff Jorge Posada 116 24 -92 Alex Rodriguez 165 107 -58 Robinson Cano 99 58 -41 Derek Jeter 109 74 -35 Bench 101 67 -34 Melky Cabrera 70 40 -30 Matsui & Nady 101 75 -26 Bobby Abreu 104 90 -14 Johnny Damon 82 92 10 Jason Giambi 42 79 37
Under “2007,” above, is the total number of Runs Created for each player. And, under “2008″ is their Runs Created, this season, to date. For the line “Bench,” I added up the Runs Created totals for all players on the Yankees with at least 50 PA that season who were not listed here as a separate player (like Jeter, A-Rod, etc.). And, for Hideki Matusi, I decided to combine Matsui & Xavier Nady’s numbers in 2008 – since it seems like Nady took over for Matsui in the line-up this season when Godzilla got hurt.
Now, let’s assume that each of these players, including the bench, will create another 16 runs this month. That’s fair, by the way. When you adjust for this, the “gap” between 2007 and 2008, in terms of Runs Created, appear as follows:
Player Gap Jorge Posada -76 Alex Rodriguez -42 Robinson Cano -25 Derek Jeter -19 Bench -18 Melky Cabrera -14 Matsui & Nady -10 Bobby Abreu 2 Johnny Damon 26 Jason Giambi 53
Clearly, the numbers, between seasons, are down for Jeter, Cabrera, the Bench, and the Matsui/Nady combo (as they total -61 here). But, note that the numbers are up for Damon and Giambi (as they total +79 here). So, in a sense, these two groups are a push.
The biggest issue found here? The loss of Posada’s production, this season compared to what he gave the Yankees in 2007, is the biggest hurt on the Yankees “O” this year. And, that’s followed by A-Rod not having the “MVP” season this year that he had last year. Lastly, Robinson Cano’s woes with the bat are probably the third biggest reason for the Yankees losing one run created per game between this year and last season.
So, if you really want to know what’s wrong with the Yankees bats this season, here’s the answer: Posada’s bat is missing, A-Rod is not playing like an MVP, and Cano has slumped most of the year. If these three things are not happening, then the Yankees would probably be creating runs like they did in 2007.
Eh, I don’t think A-Rod deserves any blame here. “Not playing like an MVP” is kind of a tough judgment. The man has the second highest OPS in the league, and were the Yankees in contention, he WOULD be an MVP candidate.
So really the main reasons for the drop in offensive production this year are the loss of Posada, and Jeter, Cano, and Cabrera having the worst seasons of their careers.